The common theme I noticed in this week’s readings was
digital spending/digital revenue/digital ad information sharing, and it left me
feeling generally pretty bummed.
The Pew Research article “Industry Breakdown: Newspaper Still
Largest Revenue Segment,” included some interesting numbers. I had NO idea
print so heavily and decisively outpaced television
as the lead money maker. It goes along with what we discussed last week: that
despite what I’ve heard for so many years, newspapers aren’t yet gasping for last breaths on their collective deathbed. I
read the Newspaper Association of America total revenue numbers twice before they actually registered;
$38.6 BILLION for 1,400 U.S. dailies, compared with 16.4 billion for 12 cable
news channels and 800 news-producing local TV stations. Wow.
The eye-opening article of the week for me was the one that
(formally) introduced me to “native” advertising: “Spending on native
advertising is soaring as marketers and digital media publishers realize the
benefits.” I had no idea this was what
it was called, although after looking it up, I realized I’ve been aware of it
and seeing it for quite some time. And I hate it. It’s trickery and it’s
misleading, especially as it appears on the news sites I like to visit. It’s
true those companies add (by law, see next paragraph) a qualifier or button to
distinguish something as an ad, but on news sites especially, the ads look like
they’re legitimate content <at first glance>. I’ve also seen native ads on one of
my favorite social media sites, Instagram. These bother me a little less, for
some reason. I might, on occasion, even be interested enough to click on one there. I’m
at a loss to explain why they bother me so much on one platform and not the
other.
Of course I laughed a little at next article—the FTC policy (rather
new!) about deceptive native ads. It’s comforting, I guess, that as the world and its
media expand and adapt, the FTC is at its heels, mostly, making sure we don’t
get taken advantage of. Something did
come to mind, though. How do we factor those pesky 30-second-or-more-long ads
we occasionally can’t opt out of
before a YouTube video, or ads at the beginning on an online news report? I
feel like I should always have the choice to opt out. I figure they are the
price I have to pay (ha) to watch the content. Those aren’t deceptive, per say,
but they seem unfair, and I feel like I should have a choice.
In “Think you’re reading the news for free? New research shows
you’re likely paying with your privacy,” the authors explained that browsing
news-related sites exposes consumers to being tracked, often more frequently
than on other places they visit online. Something the authors brought up really
got to me: that ad blockers might be seen as a hindrance to someone’s business
model. Meaning, I’m on a business’ site, so I ought to pay with my privacy for
their content. Uh…NO? If you want to me to pay you with/for something, how
about go ahead and charge me? Let’s be honest here! Back to the topic of
tracking, I’m going to leave this right here:
“It should come as no
surprise that this practice, as it becomes better understood, doesn’t sit well
with the public.
Extensive survey research
has shown that users are opposed to such invasions of their privacy. At the same time, they feel like there’s
nothing they can do to protect themselves.”
The Advertising Age
article about Facebook made me wonder: why does everybody want to know where I
am, all the time? That was sort of the appeal of growing up, right? Knowing
that one day I wouldn’t have to explain my whereabouts, without someone (hi,
mom) always needing to track my moves. It’s MY privacy, and it’s my right to
NOT share information. I don’t remember anyone ever asking me if it was okay.
Instead the burden is on me to dig deep into Facebook’s privacy settings to
figure out a way to opt out. In the end, I think it’s all about the money.
Facebook was, at first, this outlet that was famous for being private about its
data. Now it sells the details to those willing to shell out the cash.
Troubling.
The final Pew Research article, “Digital News—Revenue Fact
Sheet,” had me wondering: digital ads seem to be something advertisers are
spending huge bucks on, but who’s watching? (Not me!) How do advertisers qualify
them as a success? Is it simply a click, a certain amount of time spent on an
ad? And am I alone in finding these ads more annoying with each passing day?
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